The clothes Australian men should buy for themselves
Very occasionally, a menswear label comes along that blows your socks and sandals off, giving hope that Australian men might finally step their style game up beyond blue suits, bone chinos, polo shirts and RM Williams boots.
Last month designer Ryan Morrow launched a capsule collection for his label Morrow. The concise range includes an inventive take on cargo pants in Japanese canvas, cotton voile shirts in boxy, blokey silhouettes and water-repellant jackets that offer a streamlined aesthetic update to Driza-Bone's classic waxed jackets.
Morrow's outlook is exquisite in its simplicity, but its outback-meets-the-city refinement won't make selling it to Australian men any easier.
'With menswear we are behind our female customers and their approach to designer fashion,' says Brittany Kipniak, senior menswear buyer for online retailer The Iconic.
'Menswear is still very much driven by the female customer. We are a data-led business, and it's still her buying for him. Perhaps he is jumping onto her account sometimes to buy things.'
Kipniak sees progress, with a smaller group of young men embracing trend-driven urban wear through social media, but the core menswear customer is interested in comfort that looks conservative.
'Men are increasingly starting to adopt those more global trends and contemporary looks a bit more quickly than they have in the past. That classic guy is evolving and adding an extra layer. Homegrown local brands, like RM Williams and Rodd & Gunn remain the crowd favourite.'
It's a similar story at department store David Jones where Chris Wilson, executive general manager of menswear, has witnessed slow evolution in the past six years.
'There's still an element of keeping it classic, but the male customer is definitely moving on from a trend point of view,' says Wilson. 'It's still slow but it's steady.'
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